Anxious to shield Australia from the global financial turmoil, Australia's political leaders have moved to accelerate the pace of spending on infrastructure and strengthen national economic integration.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd met state and territory leaders at the Council of Australian Governments meeting in Perth yesterday, and agreed to speed up a federal audit of the country's infrastructure needs.
The speed-up will enable major projects to be selected for funding by his Government's $20 billion Building Australia Fund sooner than had been planned.
In an effort to protect consumers from dodgy lenders and sharp financial practice, the Federal Government will take over regulation of all consumer credit, including mortgages, mortgage broking, margin lending, pay-day lending and financial counselling services.
COAG also agreed to a new consumer policy framework based on a single national consumer law designed to improve product standards and reduce business compliance costs.
The Productivity Commission has estimated the benefits of such a national framework at anything from $1.5 billion to $4.5 billion a year.
The Prime Minister and premiers admitted that, despite the ''strong capital position'' of Australia's banks and financial institutions, the domestic economy would be hit by the global economic crisis.
The communique issued after the meeting says, ''Leaders ... acknowledged that Australia could not fully insulate itself from developments overseas, and that a prolonged global financial crisis would affect the Australian economy through financial and trade linkages, and through the effects on confidence.''
Mr Rudd said bringing forward major infrastructure projects would clear economic bottlenecks, stimulate activity and help maintain confidence.
Speaking after the meeting, he said, ''We believe this is important because of the outstanding infrastructure needs of our nation, both in our cities and our rural and regional areas. And we intend to get on with the job.''
The newly established federal agency Infrastructure Australia will now present its audit and priority list of projects by December, opening the way for outlays from the Building Australia Fund announced in May's federal budget.
Victorian Premier John Brumby applauded the decision, saying ''that commitment will enable the Commonwealth and the states to work together to bring major infrastructure projects on line earlier than would otherwise have been the case''.
South Australian Premier Mike Rann similarly welcomed the prospect of being able to ''get cracking'' on Australia's infrastructure needs.
''It's in stark contrast to what we've had over the last 612 years, the last 12 years, where infrastructure couldn't even be discussed [at COAG].''
Next month COAG also plans to set nationally consistent guidelines for public-private infrastructure partnerships, though it was acknowledged that the financial climate for such projects was now rather less favourable than it had been.
The federal takeover of consumer-credit regulation will be implemented in two stages, with a uniform consumer credit code to be introduced before next July and federal regulation of the remaining areas of consumer credit including pay-day lending (at pawnbrokers), credit cards, store credit and personal loans to be completed before July 2010.
Mr Rudd said, ''This is a major reform in an area which has been crying out for reform for a long, long time, and necessary at times like this.''
In an effort to finish work on the reform of federal-state financial relations and agree on future health funding arrangements, the Prime Minister and premiers have brought forward the date of the next COAG meeting from December to November 17 in Canberra.
The COAG meeting also agreed to develop a national energy-efficiency strategy by December as an early step in tackling climate change.
With emissions trading likely to push up electricity prices from 2010, the strategy aims to intensify efforts to make homes and businesses more energy-efficient.
The Prime Minister said, ''[It's] the best way, the most effective way, and the earliest way, of bringing down greenhouse gas emissions.''
COAG agreed to develop a new protocol for Centrelink and child protection agencies to share information. Centrelink will be included in the national child protection alert system by December.
The leaders also agreed, in principle, to establish a framework for exchanging criminal histories to aid the screening of people who work with children.
In a significant step towards nationally consistent education standards, COAG also approved the establishment of a statutory authority, to be called the National Curriculum Board, which will be jointly accountable to the Federal, state and territory governments.
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